1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to an electrical connector having means for reducing warpage thereof.
2. Description of Prior Art
It is known that in some situation, an electrical connector is requested to connect a printed circuit board (PCB) and a plurality of complementary plug connectors. A conventional electrical connector of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,549,480, 5,584,709, 5,238,413, 5,281,165 or 5,584,709. Such an electrical connector includes an insulative housing, such as an insert molding plastic housing, and a plurality of terminals received in the insulative housing. The insulative housing includes a front mating surface with the terminals extending therefrom, and a rear terminating surface, from which tails of the terminals are extended for being soldered to solder pads of the PCB.
In addition, an article, entitled xe2x80x9cIntroducing Serial ATA White Paperxe2x80x9d announced by Serial ATA group on Nov. 7, 2000 at the website, http://www.maxtor.com/Quantum/src/whitepapers/wp13 serialata.htm, indicated that as a next generation personal computer (PC) storage interface, Serial ATA will replace the Ultra ATA/100 interface used to connect most PCs to their primary storage, which is projected to become a bottleneck within two years. This article introduces the Serial ATA interface together with comparison to alternative storage interface and a standard of a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment ATA connector, which is not described in detail afterward. As widely used in PC, Serial ATA connector is possible to be used together with other kinds of connectors and combined with other connector sections into an X-in-one connector.
Some electrical connectors described above are designed or mounted at an edge of the printed circuit board. The insulative housing includes a plurality of opposite mounting ears extending beyond the rear terminating surface for positioning the connector on the PCB.
However, problems arise in designing above X-in-one connectors with a Serial ATA connector section. These problems often are associated with manufacturing the insulative housing or assembling the electrical connector on the PCB. For instance, the insulative housing, which is formed by plastic molding and relatively is long and thin, often has a problem of warpage about its middle portion so as to become vaulted or curvilinear. In addition, during assembling the connector on the PCB by soldering the terminals of the connector on the PCB, the heat produced thereby bring the thinner portion of the insulative housing into warpage. Therefore, the terminals of the electrical connector will improperly engage with solder pads of the PCB while assembling the electrical connector on the PCB.
Hence, an improved electrical connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the conventional connector.
Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to provide an improved electrical connector having means for solving warpage issue of a housing thereof.
A second object of the present invention is to provide an improved electrical connector whose terminals can be precisely soldered to a PCB by surface mounting technology (SMT).
A third object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector which can by securely mounted to an edge of a PCB.
In order to achieve the objects above mentioned, an electrical connector assembled on a printed circuit board (PCB) comprises an elongated insulative housing, a plurality of terminals received in the insulative housing and four pairs of mounting ears formed by the insulative housing for clamping the PCB. The terminals are divided into three groups for achieving different functions. The insulative housing comprises a front mating surface adapted for mating with a complementary connector, an opposite terminating surface and a pair of staggered latches at a middle portion of the terminating surface of the housing. The latches extend rearwardly from the terminating surface and each has a hook at a free end thereof for engaging with the PCB.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.